RabbiDenbo.com
  • Books
  • Thoughts
  • Podcasts
    • 6 Constant Mitzvos
    • 48 Ways to Happiness
    • Path of the Just
    • Garden of Eden
    • Noah
    • The Life of Abraham
    • 7 Traits
  • DENBO LIVE
  • Ask a Question
  • Events
  • Mohel / Bris Milah

December 26th, 2012

12/26/2012

1 Comment

 
Picture
I am never surprised by the logical inconsistencies that are constantly thrown out by those that oppose any mention or discussion of God. 

Dr. Lawrence Krauss, a well known skeptic and proponent of a Godless world posted an article on CNN today entitled; "Why must the nation grieve with God?". Now to be fair to his article, there are actually points to which I agree. It is extremely insensitive to proclaim to know why the children from Newtown died in that tragic attack. It is beyond the ability of anyone to know these things. To say that anyone who does not turn to God is unable to fully love is also quite absurd. However, Dr Krauss' emotional anger seems to have allowed him to make a similar error in judgement. To ask how an intelligent deity could act rationally and allow such things to happen clearly shows that one doesn't understand the nature and essence of an intelligent and infinite Deity. To ascribe attributes such as callous to a Being that has no emotions is as silly as the previous fallacies. An infinite Being is precisely that, infinite. It has no emotional response to the world such as we do. The only thing that we can be clear on is that if there is a Creator that is Infinite then what we know just by our being here is that Creator is a giver; from the fact that we were given life. The gift of life that we were given is for us to choose how to live and how to act. To ascribe acts of cruelty to such a being would simply negate the very nature of our free will. This is something that requires a tremendous amount of thought and focus which is beyond the scope of this platform to truly understand.

However, the logical flaw that struck me in the article was this statement of callousness. Why is it any less callous to state that there is no God? If there is no God than there is no soul. If there is no soul then these innocent children whose lives were stolen are simply that; lives that are stolen and ended. Why is that no less heart wrenching to a suffering parent? Why is it that to speak about God is insulting to one who doesn't believe in God but to tear away the existence of the eternal is justified because it is simply rational science?  

1 Comment
Anon
12/31/2012 11:45:58 am

Rabbi you mention a hyper-nuanced and astute point that often eludes decent people when encountering militant atheism. Holding by the atheistic doctrine is not a problem. But what is problematic is when individuals exploit a tragedy to inject their atheistic views when it is totally unnecessary to convey their point. Dr. Lawrence Krauss could have aptly described the extreme insensitivity of religious people or institutions who callously justify the evil that happend through some sort of retributive justice enacted by G-d.

Every decent person will strongly go on the defensive here and outright dismiss such preposterous accusations. However, you simply don't see the same type of defense being made when an atheist uses such tragedies and plays on the emotions of an entire nation to justify his stance.

Both the religious and the atheist are WRONG for exploiting suffering and using it as a platform to promulgate their own views. However, just as both are wrong, both need to be equally condemned.

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Author

    Thank you for visiting my site.  I am Rabbi Denbo and I live in Los Angeles with my amazing wife and seven incredibly beautiful children.

    Here you will find access to my teachings and activities. Feel free to be in touch with any questions or comments you'd like to send a rabbi.

    Archives

    September 2017
    September 2016
    July 2016
    December 2015
    December 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    July 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed